Live blog from Fenway: Sox meet Rays for first time in '10

Associated PressShades of the past: Jason Varitek got his second start behind the plate for the Boston Red Sox Friday, against the Tampa Bay Rays, and hit his third home run.

Middle of 9th, Red Sox 1, Rays 1: Carlos Pena steals second (Carlos Pena?), but Papelbon fans B.J. Upton and it's on to the bottom half. The grounds crew is tidying things up; this game better end soon as it's becoming a mess. Lance Cormier coming on for Tampa, didn't he pitch for Boston about 25 years ago? Oh, that was Rheal Cormier in the 90s. Oops, the tarp is out...BOOO!

Top of 9th, Red Sox 1, Rays 1: Rain is coming down hard, Papelbon is on. River Dance Time as a river runs through it (Fenway, that is).

Top of 8th, Red Sox 1, Rays 1: Beckett is done after seven innings of four-hit ball. Okajima is on in the rain,

End of 6th, Red Sox 1, Rays 1: Ortiz is stranded at third. A few more innings like this, and Bogar will become famous in Boston, for reasons he doth not want.

Bottom of 6th, Red Sox 1, Rays 1: And Ortiz rips a double down the line in right! Youkilis will try to score from first! Tim Bogar is waving him in with no out ... huh! He's out! Wendell Kim, you have company. Bogar has never coached third in the big leagues, in case you were about to ask.

Middle of 6th, Red Sox 1, Rays 1; Beckett still really sharp. Four hits allowed, three were cheapies. Balfour in for Rays, but the tide may be turning. Wade Davis did great for Rays, except for the Varitek homer.

End of 5th, Red Sox 1, Rays 1: It's all even. You gotta wonder, how long can the captain carry this offense?

Bottom of 5th, Red Sox 1, Rays 1: Home run by Varitek. His 3rd! Hitting .500 this season! I'm out of control with the exclamation points!

Middle of 5th, Rays 1, Red Sox 0: Scutaro leaps and robs Bartlett, saves a run and converts a line-drive double play. Great play. Who said this guy couldn't do it at short? Move over, Joe Cronin.

Top of 5th, Rays 1, Red Sox 0: Hermida played a routine fly into a double. Omigod. Is this catching? (Or in this case, not catching). The scoreboard says Jason Bartlett's last 20 homers have been solo shots. There's a man on second, so we're safe.

Bottom of 4th, Rays 1, Red Sox 0: We switch live, again, to Ortiz at the plate with one out. Youkilis on 2nd after a walk and a wild pitch. It's 2-0 on Ortiz. Now 2-1. This is how the ticker at Times Square must have worked for the World Series way back when, right? Now 3-1. Longoria can't shift at third because Youkilis is on 2nd. Now it's 3-2 after Ortiz fouled off a fat pitch down the middle. THE WHIFF! More boos.

End of 3rd, Rays 1, Red Sox 0: Crawford has not been caught on steals against the Red Sox in his last ... drumroll, please... 28 times! Dating back to 2002.The Rays have the Papi Shift on Drew. Didn't he used to hit to left once in awhile? Didn't he used to hit? Grounder to the hole at second, where the shortstop is there to gobble it up.

Middle of 3rd, Rays 1, Red Sox 0: One run, one (cheap) hit, one error, two stolen bases. Ben Zobrist grabbed one, too. Game 10 is a little early for the Sox to look this ragged.

Top of 3rd, Rays 1, Red Sox 0: Ben Zobrist's chopper eludes Beltre, who seemed to lose the high hopper in the lights. Plus, Crawford was running right past him. Still, the boos are heard. Not exactly a great defensive inning for Team Web Gem - Scutaro's error opened the gates.

Top of 3rd, Red Sox 0, Rays 0, To paraphrase friend and colleague Garry Brown, some things you can count on, like Carl Crawford stealing on Jason Varitek. And he just did.

End of 2nd, Red Sox 0, Rays 0: Hermida singled off the wall, gotta like him,.but this lineup looks very flawed. Varitek tapped a grounder to end the inning.

Middle of 2nd, Red Sox 0, Rays 0: It's great to honor Jackie Robinson this way, but it's hard not to watch all these 42's and not think of Mariano Rivera, too. Big Papi up, and gets a big, supportive hand. Here's a question: Ortiz is hitting .154, J.D. Drew .143, Drew makes more money, but only Papi is a national talk-show topic. OK, let's go live ... it's 1-1 on Ortiz. Now 1-2. I know what y'all are thinking. Just high, 2-2. Just low, 3-2. Ortiz fouls one off the press window, he's aiming for us, I know it, it's all our fault. But I digress. THE WHIFF! A few boos, too.

Top of 2nd, Red Sox 0, Rays 0: Welcome to winter. It's 41 at gametime, but the rain has stopped. Rays, all of them, are wearing No. 42 to honor Jackie Robinson, who made his debut 63 years ago Thursday. (Rays did not play Thursday, so tonight's the night). In fleet-footed Jackie's honor, Evan Longoria just swiped second on Jason Varitek, who gets the start with Josh Beckett pitching. Terry Francona says he doesn't plan to match Tek with certain pitchers (and will keep him off Tim Wakefield duty), but Beckett does like him.